KOM leader McDonald marches on toward Genting

Drapac Porsche rider Peter McDonald has been steadily amassing King of the Mountains points in the Tour de Langkawi, taking the jersey on the opening stage and adding to his total on the stages since then.

The 31 year old Australian is perhaps best known for beating Michael Rogers and Adam Hansen in the 2009 national road race championships, overcoming the Columbia duo’s numerical advantage when he won a three-up sprint at the end of the race.

That win earned him the right to wear the distinctive jersey, but he’s also taken good results in other events. McDonald won the Tour of Wellington in 2009, and was second overall in the Tour of Taiwan that same year. Netting a stage in the former this year gave him a morale boost prior to the start of the Tour de Langkawi, and he has been climbing well throughout the race.

McDonald now has eleven points, five more than closest rival Steve Ackerman (Vorarlberg-Corratec). Tomorrow’s stage to Port Dickson will offer him the change to go for the prime on the category four Eye on Malaysia climb, but it will be Saturday’s penultimate stage which will decide if he will win the competition or not.

“I am not feeling too bad,” he told Velonation on Thursday. “It is going to come down to Genting, so I will try to conserve a bit of energy until then.

“I can climb well but there are some climbers here like the Iranians and Rujuno…I am not quite up to their level, but basically if I can get some points now, I might be able to get enough on Genting to hold onto it. That would be the idea, anyway.”

This year’s race has been peculiar in that the climbs have been very low thus far. All have been fourth category, too, which greatly limits the chance a climber has of gaining a decent wedge of points. He feels that a tougher first few days would have suited him well.

“I am not too bad on the climbs and I have won King of the Mountains jerseys in the past,” he stated. “If there were more climbs, it would be better for me.”

Whatever happens in the final days of this Tour de Langkawi, McDonald plans to make the most of the form he will get out of the race. In May he and the team will head over Europe where they will ride a number of decent events, including events in France and the FBD Insurance Rás in Ireland. They will then head back to Australia afterwards in order to prepare for the season there.